1. Field
This invention relates to footwear. More particularly, it relates to insulated stockings useful for cold weather activities such as skiing, skating, biking, jogging and walking.
2. State of the Art
Sport stockings for skiing, skating and other sports are typically made of woven materials. Cotton and wool "sweat socks" are well-known articles of wear and are now understood to also be made from a wide variety of fabrics blended using both natural and synthetic fibers. While such stockings have a certain amount of flexibility, they also have a tendency to "ball up" when compressed, for example, by forward bending of the wearer's leg relative to the foot. That is, the user's foot compresses the stocking and, through repeated movement or manipulation of the foot, causes the stocking material to deform and move relative to the foot and collect into a lump. Such stockings are also somewhat limited in insulative value, even though they may provide useful moisture "wicking" and air "breathability." That is, the material facilitates the transfer of perspiration from the skin through the stocking to the footwear (e.g., shoe, boot).
Closed-cell neoprene has been used as stocking material. However, materials heretofore suggested have been water- or air-resistant and in turn have retained or trapped perspiration. Therefore, closed-cell neoprene has not been accepted as a sport stocking, and especially a winter sport stocking, even though it has good insulating characteristics and an elasticity which far exceeds that of the fibrous materials used for stockings. Thus, a stocking of closed-cell neoprene may hug the wearer's foot and have a reduced tendency to "ball up" or form irritative lumps in highly compressed areas.
Any stocking formed of two or more pieces of material will tend to have raised seams which irritate the foot particularly in confining footwear such as ski boots. Junctures of seams, where reinforcement is required to provide for the focused forces, may be particularly irritating and form indentations in the skin and, on occasion, blisters on the wearer's foot. There is a need for a neoprene stocking which may be usable for sports such as skiing, skating and the like.